Don Pendleton's Joe Copp Mystery Series

Today I put up a Facebook page for Don Pendleton’s Joe Copp Private Eye Thriller series. It includes the covers to the books, designed by Judy. Judy and I have worked together now for ten years. She’s done my websites and my POD and ebook covers. If you have a need for Kindle, Smashwords, ebook covers, or POD covers, take a look at Judy's website. She does good work.

The first book in the Joe Copp series of six, Copp for Hire, is now on SALE for .99 Cents at Kindle and at Smashwords, with the five other novels $2.99 each. If you like hard-boiled, fast paced stories, check the books out. The popular novels were originally published in hardcover and then in paper.

They are also available in print with the new covers that we did recently. All six ebooks should be available very soon in Nook, Kobo, iPad and other formats. I believe three or four are currently available in those additional applications, but all six will soon be, if they are not already.

Many people do not know they can download the Kindle app for their PC, and other devices. You can then sample Kindle books at Amazon, in addition to buying ebooks in seconds.

Check out Don’s Author Page at Smashwords and the Joe Copp series Amazon Kindle.

And if you are on Facebook, visit “Don Pendleton’s Joe Copp, Private Eye Series” Page.

Linda

"We're Going To Drink Vodka Gimlets." -In honor of Raymond Chandler and wife

"We had three gimlets, not doubles, and it didn't do a thing to him. That much would just get a real souse started. So I guess maybe he was cured at that." ~Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlow in The Long Goodbye.

This is a love story of sorts. It is about best-selling novelist, screenwriter, Raymond Chandler, author of The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye, Farewell, my Lovely, and other novels, short stories, and screenplays.

Raymond Chandler was born in 1888 in Chicago. At the age of seven years, he relocated to London with his divorced mother. In 1917 he enlisted in the Canadian Army. After the war he returned to the states and in 1919 was in Los Angeles. It was there he met Cissy Pascal, a married woman. They began an affair and shortly thereafter her divorce was final.

But Chandler's mother did not want him to marry Cissy and the couple did not marry until 1924, only weeks after his mother's death. Cissy died in 1954 after a long illness.

A heavy drinker, Chandler also suffered from bouts of depression. A year after his wife's death he apparently attempted suicide. His career suffered from his drinking and depression, although his books and movies are classics. He died at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, CA in 1959. He was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in San Diego. He had wanted to be cremated like his wife, according to Frank MacShane, literary biographer, but without instructions in a will, he was buried.

But that is not the end of the love story. A dedicated fan and historian Loren Latker, who for years has researched Raymond Chandler had discovered that Cissy Chandler's ashes have been sitting on a mausoleum warehouse shelf a block away from her husband's grave. But it would take a court order to reunite the couple.

I quote the A/P article by John Rogers: "Latker's wife, Annie Thiel, is Internet talk radio psychologist Dr. Annie. She approached an attorney friend, Aissa Wayne, for advice. Wayne, the daughter of John Wayne, was so captivated by what she called "a wonderful love story" that she decided to take the case on pro bono."

Although the judge admitted he was inclined to deny the request, when he heard Cissy Chandler's ashes were sitting on a shelf in the warehouse, he ruled in favor of reuniting the couple.

So a scheduled celebration will take place Valentine's Day, 2011 at the writer's grave in San Diego's Mount Hope Cemetery when the two will once more be together after more than 50 years.

Historian Loren Latker states, "We're going to have a toast at the grave. We're going to drink vodka gimlets."

Read more about Raymond Chandler at Loren Latker's site.

~Linda